


Nightfall

by IcyStarlight



Series: Until The Magic Wears Off [2]
Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Demons, Dragons, Fae & Fairies, M/M, Magic, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 10:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16324559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyStarlight/pseuds/IcyStarlight
Summary: As the prince of Kyome, Gaku Yaotome has had enough of his father's control and finds little ways to rebel. Ways such as going out on the hunting trip even though his father canceled it simply because he can. Though he strives to help all those in his kingdom no matter who they are, he doesn't quite know what to do when he finds a small dragon dying in the forest. These supposedly dead creatures of magic are ones his mother used to tell him stories about and here's one dying right in front of him. He will do anything he can to save it, he just hopes there's enough time left.





	Nightfall

**Author's Note:**

> no beta we die from silly mistakes u overlook three times and then eventually come back to fix later

He was about lose his mind. He needed out of here right now. If he spent any longer in this castle he was going to throw himself off the highest tower. Crowned prince of Kyome, Gaku Yaotome, was through with his father’s bullshit. They were leaving for the summer hunting trip when there was an order the king had canceled it. But he was a prince and he was tired of his father trying to rein him in under his control. So with his personal knight, his long time friend Ryu, they went anyways. 

At first things seemed normal the first day they rode out. By the time they were into the forest on their second day out things seemed strange. It was quiet, too quiet. Like there was nothing else in the forest except for them and their horses. Then on the third day, they found the source of the disturbance. 

In a small clearing full of red flowers, was a patch of burnt earth. At least it seemed burnt at first glance, the blackened grass and wilting flowers, but the patch was in a perfect circle. There had to be something, some reason behind this. Whether it be magic or demons, there was a cause. He chose to ignore the way Ryu sighed when he got off his horse and moved closer to investigate. So he liked to help people. That was his job. If his father wasn’t going to do his job then he would have to work twice as hard. 

Slowly he approached the ring. Something was bleeding, the ground was splattered red. That meant alive which meant not a demon. Good, no demons in Kyome yet, that was good. But what kind of magic would’ve - holy shit it was a dragon. There was a literal dragon in the circle. It was small, probably bleeding out, and very injured but it was a dragon. And it was still alive. How the hell was he supposed to help a dragon? 

It opened its eyes and looked at him. Gaku had been around long enough, seen enough things to know what that look meant. Those pale pink eyes that seem to stare into his soul were asking for death. He heard Ryu approach the circle next to him, footsteps cautious. The dragon closed its eyes.

“We have to help it.” His own voice seemed quiet compared to the silence around them. 

“There’s nothing we can do for it Gaku, it’s already dead.” Ryu put a hand on his shoulder sympathetic but he shook it off.

“No, it’s still alive.”

Ryu looks between him and the dragon, “You can’t possibly-”

“Please Ryu, I have to try.” he doesn’t ask for a lot of things. So when he asks for this, he knows Ryu won’t be able to refuse.

Sighing, Ryu shakes his head, “Alright, I’ll bring you the medical supplies.”

“Thank you.” 

He watches the dragon who makes no response to the exchange that just happened. He takes a step forward and the dragon’s eyes snap open in a threatening glare. He holds his hands up to show he doesn’t mean any harm but if anything the dragon glares harder. Gaku didn’t think that could be possible. So he rolls his eyes at the glaring dragon but removes his weapons from his person, tossing them back near the forest. He tries again but the glare has not stopped. 

“Look I’m trying to help you. You’re going to die like this at least let me try and save you.” The dragon doesn’t seem to give any regard to its own well being. But he can’t let it die. He can’t just let it accept this cruel fate. It wasn’t right. “Please let me at least try.”

The dragon stops glaring and closes its eyes. Either it was willing to try or it no longer had the energy to care what happened anymore. It was a yes either way. Kneeling next to the dragon he doesn’t like what he finds. Varying cuts and gashes mar its body. Some of the smaller cuts are scabbed over. The larger cuts look like they’ve barely just stopped bleeding. The gashes are the worst, most of which still bleed. He wonders how deep they run. He wonder who did this. He wonders how much pain the dragon is in. 

He can hear footsteps approaching, it’s probably Ryu with the medical supplies. He gets up and waits just in case it isn’t. But it’s just Ryu and the bag of supplies. He was probably right thinking they’re the only people out in this forest but you could never be too careful. Ryu gives him a nod when he takes the supplies but other than that they don’t say anything else as he goes back over to the dragon. 

Thus the long process of cleaning up and bandaging all he can began. He rips off a piece of his undershirt and wets it, using it to wipe off the dried blood. He underestimates the amount of dirt/blood, it’s hard to tell, and has to rip another piece of his shirt off. The dragon doesn’t flinch or give any response to what he’s doing. It hasn’t opened its eyes in a while, but it’s still breathing. The short and shallow breaths barely make its chest rise though. Slowly but surely, the dirt/blood comes off to reveal a near white color hide. It’s pink, or at least it probably should be if it wasn’t on death’s doorstep. But he doesn’t have time to try and think about it. A third piece of shirt comes off so he can clean the newer wounds, the still bleeding ones, so he can wrap those first. He doesn’t bother with trying to stitch them shut, knowing full well not only will the dragon not allow him, but the needle he has won’t pierce dragonhide. 

He runs out of bandages long before he runs out of cuts and gashes to bandage. His undershirt is completely ruined at this point and mostly gone, but thankfully he still has his outerwear and cloak for the cold. Once everything is bandages to stop bleeding or further/possible infection he finally notices the dragon is watching him. 

“Think you could manage to eat something?” he asks like he’s expecting an answer. 

He never gets one. 

Not that it matters, the dragon eats the bowl of stew Ryu prepared when he places it down in front of the dragon. It then curls up on the now mostly empty bag of medical supplies he set next to the fire earlier and proceeds to fall asleep. At least he’s pretty sure it’s asleep. 

Nothing else happens with the dragon the rest of the night. They decide to wait and see whether or not they move tomorrow or remain here. Ryu seems skeptical the dragon will make it through the night given the amount of bandages he covered it in, but he has to have at least some hope.  
At some point though after he’s long fallen asleep he wakes up to Ryu talking to the dragon, well he thinks he wakes up. It seemed weird enough to be a dream, but he’s pretty sure its not. He wonders if the dragon is talking back, but is too tired to try and think about it longer. He’ll find out in the morning.

 

The dragon is gone when he wakes up. He should’ve seen it coming. Why would it stick around? It didn’t really have a reason to, nor a reason to trust them. Gaku can’t help but feel sad about it though. The dragon had been in awful shape, if it had already left it was probably going off to die. Dammit and he had wanted to save it. It could’ve been the last dragon alive. Now the dragons really were going to be gone.

But the dragon hasn’t left, it appears back at the edge of the clearing dragging a pile of fish on the medical bag behind it. It must be trying to repay them for healing it. How cute. At least he thinks it’s cute until he notices the red seeping through the mass of bandages. “Oi! You opened your wounds again!” 

The dragon merely looks up and stares at him. What a judgemental little thing. If only he knew what it was thinking. Was it mad at him? Was it annoyed? What did that stare even mean? He was too lost in his own thoughts to realize that the dragon had left behind its pile of fish and wandered over to him. It sits in front of him and stares up at him. Kneeling down he reaches out slowly to try and see just how bad the dragon’s reopened wounds are when the dragon comes at him instead. Well it doesn’t really come at him, it merely headbutts his hand, but it’s enough to startle him back onto the ground. The dragon sits back and stares at him again. 

That was, strange. Why’d it do that? He stares at his hand for a second before an unknown voice speaks in his head, “You could at least say thank you.”

He sits there, dumbfounded. The dragon merely stares at him. Was, was that the dragon talking to him? He decides to ask, “You talk?”

The voice speaks again, “More telepathic projection in this form but yes.”

"In this form?” Magic never seemed that confusing before but he feels out of his league with this.

“Half dragon, I have a human form. Though I currently lack the strength to change forms now.” The dragon gives him a bored look, like this was all basic knowledge.

“You didn’t try and talk yesterday, what changed?” he asked.

“You changed. I didn’t have the strength yesterday and I’ll probably lose it again soon.” the voice is calm and collected despite what it’s implying. 

“What? Why?” It couldn’t have all been for nothing. There had to be something else they could do!

The dragon sighs, “I’m dying. You might’ve patched me up on the outside but magic wounds can’t be healed by most people.” It turns away from him and walks back to its fish pile.

He reaches out after the dragon, “What if I could bring you to someone who could heal magic wounds?” He can’t let the dragon die, not if there’s even the slightest chance. 

“I highly doubt you know a mage, let alone one powerful enough to deal with demonic magic.” the dragon sounds extremely unimpressed by his offer. He doesn’t need to see the dragon roll its eyes at him to know that’s how this current conversation is going. 

“Demonic magic…” the dragon was right, he didn’t know anything about Demonic magic. But maybe, maybe they did. They were from Vale before it fell to the demons. He has to at least try, “But what if I could, bring you to someone powerful enough to help you, would you come with me?”

The dragon gives him an unimpressed look, “Like I said, I highly doubt you-” 

He is done trying to reason with this dragon. For someone who’s dying it sure didn’t even want to try. It frustrates him to no end, “I do though! If you’re going to die either way wouldn’t you rather try and live?”

The dragon doesn’t answer that.

“Please just let me try and help you.” he knows that it was probably a human who caused all those wounds. Or at least some of them. He didn’t know much about Demonic magic, but those were wounds from a blade. The dragon had no reason to trust him, but Gaku would not give up. This dragon was in his kingdom and he was going to help it whether it wanted help or not! 

“Fine. It’s pointless though, there’s no way you know anyone powerful enough to stop demon magic.” the dragon finally caves.

He takes a second to revel in the small victory before he yells, “Ryu! Wake up! We’re heading back now!”

“What’s the rush for?” the dragon asks.

Now it’s his turn to stare at it unimpressed, “If you’re suffering, why should you suffer longer than need be if we can stop it sooner.”

The dragon narrows its eyes at him, “I don’t understand you.”

Gaku merely shakes his head at that, “That’s fine, you’ll have time to figure it out once I get you help.”

The dragon doesn’t say anything else. It merely watches them pack up the the horses. 

By the time they finish the dragon is already out cold again. He picks it up as gently as he can and wraps its shivering form in his cloak. All that bravado of not caring must’ve been quite the act, now the poor thing was shaking like a leaf in the winter winds. There isn’t anything to say to cover up the deafening silence of the forest. As their horses take off back towards Kyome’s capital, he can only hope that the mage he knows really will be powerful enough.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuki is aware the of the dragon the second it comes within the area of the capital city. It takes a second longer to sense the Demonic magic within it and that the prince is the one with the dragon near them. It doesn’t take a lot to put two and two together. Everyone in Kyome’s castle and capital city knew of prince Gaku’s tendency to help anyone he could. A dragon dying from Demonic magic would not be any different. 

Okay so a dragon dying of Demonic magic and he was the only one the prince would know that could even have any idea of helping the dragon. Wait, half-dragon, magic was strong but it was too small. Plus there was no way the prince could bring a dragon into the capital city unless it was a halfling dragon, it would be too big otherwise. 

So he would need something to get rid of the Demonic magic. This much magic meant there was a demon involved and a contract needed to be voided. So he would have to somehow bring the demon here, kill it, and that would get rid of the demon. There would have to be some healing properties to it because it was probably gravely wounded if it had collapsed enough to be caught by humans. Then maybe something else to deal with whatever residual darkness lay tangled in the dragon’s magic? Oh, and some extra magic to help the dragon regain their magic faster! That was a long list of things he needed to do and he needed to have started yesterday already. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s been quiet in the castle these last few days. With the prince out of the castle though, everyone was more on edge as the King was in a sour mood about the prince going off on his own even though he had been told not to. Momo secretly hoped the prince would do things like this more often. He was grateful that King Yaotome had allowed him and Yuki a place in not only his kingdom, but in his castle after Vale fell, but the man was a downright asshole at times. Speaking of Yuki, Momo hadn’t seen him around today. Normally on less busy days Yuki would wander around the castle and make his way past the training grounds to visit the royal garden. But Momo had been helping train new knights all day on and off, and had yet to see the mage. 

Maybe something had come up? 

He was sure the new knights would be grateful if he stopped beating them every training match so he passed the torch off to another knight and went in search of Yuki. Well, there was only one other place Yuki would be really. 

He didn’t bother to knock on the door, Yuki would know he was coming. Something about being able to sense people’s auras or something. He didn’t really understand magic that much so he just took Yuki’s word for it. Though when he entered the room Yuki didn’t even seem to notice him. The mage’s attention was drawn to the three books floating around him and the cauldron in front of him. What happened that Yuki needed his full concentration? It had been a long time since Momo had seen Yuki this preoccupied with what he was doing. He must be trying something new. Though, Yuki wasn’t the type of person to try something new out of nowhere, had he missed something? 

“Yuki? What’s going on?” he asked hesitantly, making sure not to yell. It hadn’t happened in two years, but it never hurt to be too careful. The fall of Vale had left scars on both of them. Back then, they had been on edge all the time. Now things were better, they were better. They’d come a long way from then. They had survived together and they’d survive whatever was going to come next together. They wouldn’t have to lose anyone anymore.

“-Momo are you okay?” Yuki stood in front of him waving a hand in his face watching him with a concerned expression.

“Huh? Oh yeah just got a little lost in thought there.” Yuki didn’t seem convinced but let it go anyways.

“Alright if you say so. While you’re here though can you go fetch something for me?” Yuki asked.

“Sure, what do you need?” He was always ready to help his darling Yuki.

“Go get prince Gaku from the courtyard, he should be back any minute now. He has something I need.” Yuki kept talking as he turned away to search for something on his desk. 

“Eh? The prince? But-” he stutters, he liked the prince, he seemed nice but he never talked to prince Gaku, only Ryu.

“Please Momo it’s important.” Yuki looked up and pleaded. Yuki never asked for things he didn’t need. If he needed the prince it was very important. 

“Alright, if Yuki says it’s important than I’ll do it.” 

“Thanks Momo.” Yuki smiled at him and he set off on his task.

He turned and left. Only when he was halfway down the hall did he stop and think about what he had just agreed to. He had to somehow convince the prince to come with him. The same prince he had never actually had a conversation with. Sure he talked with Ryu all the time, they were sparring buddies. But the prince? Whole other story he had no idea about. Hopefully the prince actually did have something for Yuki and this wasn’t some weird spur of the moment thing Yuki just sensed. 

Walking out to the courtyard, he already spotted the prince and Ryu riding up on their horses. Both of them looked strangely on guard for some reason. Some servants rush up to help the prince dismount. It’s then that he notices the way the prince is holding his cloak bundled up in his arms. When a servant goes to take it the prince just pulls it away from them. He doesn’t really give it much more thought before he acts.

“Prince Gaku, you’ve returned. I see you have the things Yuki asked you to get. He asked me to come fetch you so he could thank you.” he thought his lie was believable enough but when the prince just stares at him in confusion he’s at a loss for what to do. Thankfully Ryu steps in to save the day.

Ryu nods in thanks, “Of course it was no problem. I’m going to go put our things away, you go on ahead with Momo my prince, I’ll catch up.”

“Right…” Prince Gaku trails off, not sure of what’s going on, but thankfully he follows him anyways.

The prince didn’t say anything the entire way back to Yuki’s study. He does however remain on guard the whole time he follows Momo there which is concerning to say the least. What was happening here? 

He holds open the door for the prince and shuts it behind them. It’s only after he’s shut the door that Yuki speaks, “You can tell me how and where later, for now bring him over here. I’ve got something to help while the real cure finishes.”

Mutely the prince nods and walks over to where Yuki gestured and sets his cloak on the table. Now that the prince wasn’t holding it anymore, what’s been hidden in the cloak is very visible.

“That’s a-”

“Hush Momo, later.” Yuki leaves his cauldron behind to investigate the small pink dragon that’s covered in a patchwork of bandages, “You did a good job patching him up.”

“But he won’t stop bleeding. He said he’d need a cure from a powerful mage or else he’ll die. I didn’t think it would happen this fast though, it was like I could feel the life draining from him.” The prince rubs a hand through his hair. Sure he’d heard all the stories of the prince wanting to help those in need, even seen it himself a few times. But that had been things like buying a kid in town an apple or something, not saving dying half-dragons.

Yuki hums a little and flicks his hand back, causing the cauldron to stir once behind him as he continues to investigate the dragon, “He spoke to you? That’s a good sign, it means he hasn’t caved to the darkness yet.” 

“The darkness?” Prince Gaku asks.

Yuki nods sadly, “Yes darkness, whatever this dragon has fought to get these wounds, it’s holding an incredible amount of darkness. I’m surprised it’s not corrupted or dead already.” “Momo can you bring me my circlet please? It should be over on my desk.”

“Can you save it?” Prince Gaku watches over Yuki’s shoulder worriedly. 

“Hopefully but I don’t know how much time we have left.” Yuki looks up at him confused, “Momo, my circlet?”

“Oh! Right!” Jumping into action, he goes to search the desk across the room.

This was insane. This was absolutely insane. All the dragons were dead. But Yuki needs his help and he’d face the demon king alone if Yuki needed him to. So he grabs Yuki’s circlet from his desk while there’s a dragon sitting on the table across the room. He always forgets how pretty Yuki’s circlet is. The band is simple for the most part, then there’s the vines that weave up and down around the band with small leaves on them. The front of the band is centered by a small magenta flower, the only other color on the circlet aside from silver. 

Ryu enters the room when he walks back over and hands off the circlet. When Yuki turns away from him, Momo gives Ryu a look that he hopes conveys his current mood of _what the actual fuck?_ Ryu simply shrugs in response and nods towards the prince. Right, prince who will help anyone with anything and a dying dragon. It’s like they were made for eachother. Honestly he shouldn’t have been that surprised. 

Momo knows better to hover over Yuki when he’s doing magic so he steps back towards the side of the room and drags the prince and Ryu with him. It’s only after he’s done so that he realizes he just grabbed the prince without even asking. Thankfully prince Gaku seems to invested in trying to watch what Yuki is doing that he doesn’t say anything, that or he doesn’t care. 

He doesn’t really know how long they’re waiting for Yuki to finish. Him and Ryu take to playing cards while watching the prince pace back and forth. It’s not like they don’t care but he has faith in Yuki’s abilities and if he tries to help he’ll just get in the way. Ryu for the most part just seems fine waiting as well, probably also knowing there’s nothing he can do to help aside from stay out of the way. Hopefully Yuki finishes soon though, otherwise the prince might wear a hole in the floor at this rate. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was taking forever. Wasn’t there anything they could do to help it go faster? He doesn’t understand a first thing about magic though. Yuki was only appointed court mage a few years back otherwise he’s had no interaction with magic his whole life. 

After what feels like forever though, Yuki stops what he’s doing and holds up a vial of silver liquid, “It’s finished.” 

He’s been waiting for so long he doesn’t really know what to do, “So what now?”

“Now I’m going to give it to the dragon and hopes it’s not too late to save him.” Yuki walks the small vial over towards the dragon is. It’s gotten worse as time has passed, labored breathing has vanished into short, small breaths. He has to watch the dragon to make sure it’s still breathing. 

“Not too late? You mean this could have all been in vain!” he won’t accept that, after all this, there is no way the dragon could die.

“Relax, if the dragon has survived this long he won’t be the one to reject the cure, if the demon inside him does then we’ll have to kill him.” Yuki carefully explains it and he suddenly feels like he’s being a child throwing a tantrum. Right, let the experienced mage do the magic stuff. 

Still though, he will hold his resolve that the dragon will live, “That won’t happen.”

“It might not, but if it does-” Yuki starts again but Gaku will not hear it.

“It won’t!” 

“-alright then, but please stay back your highness, can’t have the escaping darkness come after you.” Momo walks over and tugs him back. If his father were here he would have thrown a fit, but he is not his father. Besides both Momo and Yuki know a lot more about this kind of thing than he did. He should really calm down and trust them.

“The escaping darkness?” Ryu asks.

Yuki hums, “Yes, it will force the demon within him out and we will kill it.” 

Momo pushes him back towards Ryu and steps in front of them, “Alright, you two stand back, it’ll try to go for both of you who have no magic.”

“But you don’t either.” Ryu says it like he knows it for sure. Despite both Momo and Yuki being here for a few years now he really hasn’t talked to them much huh? So much for knowing everyone in the castle.

Momo just smiles at that, “No but I’ve spent enough time around Yuki that the demon won’t be able to reach me anyways.” 

There’s silence in the room as the silver vial slowly drains. Yuki hovers closely to the dragon. With that circlet on his head, Gaku can clearly see the man who used to be the most powerful mage in all of Vale. It hits him that both Yuki and Momo have experience with demons because of Vale’s fall now here they are probably facing down a demon again because he wanted to help a dying dragon. He’d have to thank them after this somehow. 

Slowly Yuki backs away from the dragon. It takes him a second to see exactly what he’s backing away from. A dark ooze slowly pours out from the dragon’s wounds. It goes right through the bandages and starts to pool on the floor.

“Here it comes! Stay back!” Momo steps forward and stands in front of Yuki. For the first time in years he can see who they used to be when they fled from Vale. The same man who once fought for their safe haven by proving himself to his father never left, Momo just hadn’t had a real reason to fight since then. Maybe he needs to go back to fighting lessons.

Then slowly but surely, the ooze gathers upright into the shape of a human. It’s not a real human, he knows that, but it sure looks like one if you were probably looking from a distance. Maybe if it had come out on its own it would be more human colored too instead of just a human silhouette. 

“Finally I’m free again.” It speaks without opening its mouth. Yet he can hear the voice so clearly in his mind. This is insane. 

“Again?” Yuki questions.

“Ah a fae, no not quite, a fae pretending to be human? No, a halfling! Oh my! How scandalous!” The demon covers its mouth like a gossiping maid as it looks around the room, “Kyome huh? You humans and your ever changing kingdoms are so excessive.”

Yuki clears his throat, calling the demon’s attention again, “What do you want?”

The demon looks intrigued by this and its mouth seems to quirk up at the idea, “Want? Little halfling there’s nothing you could give me to get me to just leave. Unless you were offering your body as a host.”

Momo moves more solidly in front of Yuki, sword in hand at the ready, “Not on your life.”

“Ah now this is interesting, you have the halfling’s magic all over you yet none of your own. Just a human then? Oh my there’s so many of you here.” The demon implores. It seems to only notice him and Ryu there as well then. There’s silence as it looks between the four of them. “Both of you protecting someone else how sweet. There’s nothing to be afraid of though, I’m just a simple observer” 

Gaku can’t help it, he snorts at that notion, “I find that hard to believe.”

“Oh the other protected speaks! What are you? A halfling too? No, there’s…” the demon looks over at him curiously, not unlike the dragon had the day before.

“What?” he questions.

“You…” the demon’s smile just seems to grow larger.

“What!” he demands.

The demon merely laughs at him, “Oh ho ho now this is interesting indeed none of you have any idea do you?”

“WHAT!” Wow this thing is infuriating. 

“Calm down don’t listen to it, nothing it says can be trusted.” Ryu puts his arm out in front of Gaku, creating a barrier between him and the demon.

“Now there’s a smart human you should listen to your friend, prince of Kyome.” the demon laughs at this.

“How did you-?” Yuki trails off, looking between him and the demon. 

“Surprised halfling? Surely you must know the legend of the fae.” The demon waits for an answer. When it doesn’t get one it seems to sigh before going back to laughing at them, “You don’t? Well that’s too bad, but don’t worry you’ll learn soon enough when it comes to pass.” 

“What are you talking about!” he has had enough of this demon and its riddles. 

“Little prince you should ask your father, surely you must’ve noticed he’s been keeping you from things.” the demon says like it's that simple. 

He rolls his eyes at the demon, “He wouldn’t tell me even if I tried the bastard.”

“Oh, how interesting, then let’s make a deal.” the demon smirks at him, he can feel its stare on him. 

“Don’t” Yuki orders. 

The demon sighs annoyed, “Come now little halfling he’s a big boy he can make his own decisions.”

“What kind of deal?” he asks curiously. He’d been acting like a brat all evening. Maybe if he played ignorance the demon wouldn’t know any better.

“Your highness stop this.” Yuki hisses at him.

The demon merely laughs, by passing both Momo and Yuki as it seemingly flies through the air over towards him and Ryu, “A favor for a favor. Your little halfling friend here will kill me before I could escape, even if it meant his life, that’s what the fae always do. So you let me go, I’ll leave the little dragon and your kingdom”

Good, it was interested, “What do I get out of this?”

“I can make you powerful, I can make you king, I can give you anything.” the demon drawls like it’s true. 

Maybe if he hadn’t seen the aftermath of the fall of Vale himself he would believe it. But he could still tell which people were the refugees he had fought with his father for so long to take into their city. Even now he could still see the scars the fall had left on them. So he looks directly into the demons eyes and with as much conviction as he can muster he tells the demon what he wants, “Void the contract you have with the dragon.”

“Excuse me?” the demon narrows its dull white eyes at him.

“You heard me, void the contract, remove him from whatever slimy hold you have him in and leave for good.” he all but orders the demon.

The demon laughs at that, “If I do that how will he control the shadows in him that were there before i was. He’ll need me when they take him over.”

Now it’s his turn to laugh, “You couldn’t even take him over before.” 

“Tch, smartass brat.” the demon curses.

“Well?” he asks smugly. 

“Very well human prince, you’re smarter than I gave you credit for. I’ll leave your little dragon alone and in exchange I go free.” the demon sighs.

“No tricks.” He says.

“No tricks.” The demon assures.

“No lies.” He demands.

“No lies.” The demon promises.

“Then we have a deal.” He eyes the demon.

“Well then I’ll be leaving.” the demon goes to leave, but before it can he asks it another question.

“Did you void it?” Cover all bases, make sure there’s no room for lies. If it leaves without voiding the contract this will all have been for naught. 

“It did.” Yuki cuts in.

“Your halfling friend can tell, and despite what you think I am a man of my word.” The demon vanishes into the floor, popping right back up behind him and in a hushed tone it whispers quietly, “One last thing though little prince, _when the one with no aura comes that is the time you must run_. Farewell little prince.” 

Then as if it had never been there in the first place, the demon vanishes. He can feel the tension in his shoulders drain and he lets out a shaky breath. The was a first time for everything his mother used to say, even dealing with demons. He can feel his knees shake and threaten to give out where he stands.

He can see the same being said for Ryu, who also breathes out a sigh of relief, “I’m used to you being reckless but can you please not make deals with demons anymore Gaku?”

“I second that, that was extremely dangerous my prince.” Yuki crosses his arms and glares at him.

Gaku rolls his eyes and gestures between the two of them, “You literally just watch me make a deal with a demon, does that not put us on a first name basis?”

“Well I guess that’s fair point.” Momo shrugs and Yuki merely sighs before walking away. Momo then looks over the two off them and ushers them towards the door, “Well then you two should head off to bed.”

“But-”

“Relax Gaku, even if the dragon does wake up it won’t be in any shape to do much other than eat for a while, it will still be here tomorrow I’m sure.” Momo assures him.

“Okay, thank you, both of you really.” he doesn’t quite know how to express his gratitude to them. Especially after he was such a brat earlier.

“Of course, now go, off to bed, and keep this on the down low, not to be rude but I doubt we want the king finding out about this.” Momo looks back over to where the dragon sleeps undisturbed.

He nods in agreement, “You’re right. Okay, goodnight then, and thank you again.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well that could have gone worse. Once Gaku and Ryu are gone he lets down the facade he was wearing. Holy shit that was absolutely terrifying. Having to face down a demon again, he wasn’t prepared for that. But it all seemed to work out. Across the room, through the open doorway to the bedroom, he can see Yuki already passed out on the covers. He had probably been working nonstop for a while on whatever magic thing he had been doing. Despite how it may have seemed, Momo knew his darling had worked one hundred percent to make sure that things would have turned out okay.

That doesn’t settle the dread in his gut as he looks between the door where the prince, no Gaku, just left and the dragon on the table. Whatever that demon had been talking about he didn’t like it whether it was true or not. 

In the morning Yuki and the dragon are both still asleep when he gets up. He’d like to stay and make sure no one comes in while he’s gone but the chance of that actually happening gets a lot higher if he doesn’t go about his day like normal. So he closes the door quietly behind him as he sets of towards the kitchen for breakfast. Hopefully by the time he gets back, maybe the dragon will be awake to eat something. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its warm when he wakes up. He doesn’t remember the last time it was warm. Everything, even his dreams are always cold and dark. Yet this place is warm. He can hear something or someone moving around nearby but he’s too tired to care. What does wake him up a little is when he hears the singing. It’s quiet singing, like a soft hum. It echoes around him and that’s when he feels the magic in the air. 

It’s been a long time since he’s felt magic like this. He really doesn’t know what to make of it, it’s nothing like the only other magic he’s encountered in life. Back when Riku… No, his baby brother is dead and the warm magic that was a constant presence at his side will never come back. But this magic, this magic is warm in a different way. Where Riku’s magic was fire and home, this magic is the warmth of the sun amongst a field of flowers. 

Blinking he tries to clear the sleep from his eyes only to find his limbs are too tired to properly move right away. Not only that but it’s hard to rub at your eyes when you have claws and not actual hands. Nearby there’s a man with mismatched silver and black hair. The man is humming something softly, seemingly unaware that the plants all around the room are humming the same song back to him. Upon further study of the man, he find that while the man radiates magic like a beacon, the actual source of the warm magic is far across in an adjacent room where the door is cracked open slightly. He wonders how embarrassed the mage in that room would be if the man in front of him knew the mage’s plants sang back to him.

The man finally seems to notice him and gives him a smile, “Good morning! I bet you’re probably hungry, I hope you like apples!”

Slowly he sits more upright at stares at the man. He really does reflect the magic in this room like a beacon. He doesn’t really know what to think of the man he’s just now meeting but the plants in the room with the same magic whisper and sing songs of a beautiful smile and love, love, love. That has to count for something. This must’ve be the home of powerful mage that prince was talking about, he wonders where he is. Whatever they did seemed to have worked, he can’t hear the demon anymore. 

So he stares at the man the flowers sing of and stares deep into his soul. He sees the familiar pain of loss, fear for your life, and losing everything, well almost everything. The desire to give everything for someone else that you cared about more than yourself.

The man doesn’t say anything the whole time. He simply sits there in silence as Tenn judges him. He wonders if the man has any food when he spots a plate of apple slices nearby. Breaking his stare, he blinks and yawns loudly. Maybe the man is smart. 

Sure enough, the man laughs but outstreches his palm anyways. When Tenn doesn’t say anything the man fills the silence, “My name’s Momo and that’s Yuki over there. I’ll leave these here for you to eat, there’s juice in that cup there if you want it, it’s really good! I have to go make it seem not suspicious and act normal, Prince Gaku or Ryu will probably be by soon but otherwise no one else should be able to enter, Yuki did something magic to the door, said it’d be a pain to try and explain this to some poor servant. Glad to see you’re doing better though little dragon, the prince was very worried. See ya!”

With a small wave, Momo leaves. Well that was unexpected. He looks at the plate of apple slices, they’re cut into bunnies. Just like he used to do for Riku… 

Riku… he wonders what Riku would tell him to do, what he would want if he were still here. But his twin is dead and even after everything that happened Tenn couldn’t save him. The lack of demon magic is a breath of fresh air. Whatever the mage did it seemed to have voided the demon’s contract. They must have killed it. Maybe, maybe this place wouldn’t be so bad. Exhausted he curls back up and goes back to sleep. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It takes a week for them to nurse the dragon back to life. Most of it is done by Yuki and Momo as he has to not look suspicious and still do all his duties. Ryu brings him updates on how the dragon is doing for a few days but then they have to go settle a dispute over something trivial between two nobles out in the countryside. Honestly it was like some of them were children with what they argued about. 

When they do come back, he decides to go visit the dragon anyways. It’s not like his father has ever really cared about what he did so long as he did what was expected of him as well. But when the go, Yuki nor Momo are anywhere to be seen and the small dragon is missing. Instead there’s a young boy, maybe a few years younger than he is, sitting at one of the tables reading something. Wait a minute, pink hair… there was no way… 

The kid turns to him and he knows those eyes and that familiar judgemental tone, “Well Prince of Kyome, seems you did know a mage powerful enough”

“You’re….” When the dragon said he had a human for he didn’t know what to really expect this was insane. To think that was the dragon he found dying only a week ago in the forest.

“Alive now thanks to you, and demon free. Momo said you made a deal with it without making a contract with it, how did you know to do that?” The boy asked him a question, he should stop gawking and answer it.

“I didn’t know, the demon knew me though. Said something about the legend of the Fae.” He runs a hand through his hair, honestly it gave him a headache just trying to figure out what it would have meant so he put it out of his mind as just a demon playing tricks with him.

“The legend of the Fae?” 

“Yes, when none of us said anything about it the demon laughed but before it left it told us, _‘when the one with no aura comes that is the time you will have to run.’_ ” he tries to shift his voice into something more sinister when he relays the cryptic message but it really doesn’t work the way he wants it to. 

Thankfully, the boy merely quirks an eyebrow at his antics, “That’s not vague and ominous at all.”

“Stupid demons.” he mumbles, he can see the boy nod in agreement. Looking over the dragon boy?, he asked a question he’s glad he gets to ask, “So, what will you do now?”

“I… I don’t know… I never planned on actually living after that…” The boy looks down at his lap where he’s wringing his hands in his shirt. That’s exactly what Ryu used to do when they were kids and he didn’t want to be dragged into whatever Gaku’s ideas about rebelling against his father were. 

The answer is simple in his mind, “Then stay here.”

“What?” The boy asks confused, watching him with a guarded expression.

“Stay, stay here in the castle. Pretend to be Yuki’s appretance or something. You’re good at magic right? My dad won’t say no to more magic power in the castle.” It was fairly simple. He could ensure the little dragon didn’t go get itself killed, ignore the thing the demon said, and get his father of his back for at least another three months.

“But why?” The dragon asks like Gaku’s just saved its life all over again.

He merely shrugs in response, “Why not?” 

“Why would you do all this?” The dragon questions like its forgotten that people can be nice, that they want to help others for the most part. Gaku is this close to going and hunting out whoever hurt this kid and cutting them in half, this was absurd. 

He doesn’t know what to tell the kid, “Because it was the right thing to do? Because no one should have to die if there’s a chance to live? I don’t know what you want me to say.” 

“There’s no way this will ever.-” the kid starts, but Gaku cuts him off quickly.

“Who’s going to say anything otherwise? In case you’ve forgotten I’m the prince of this kingdom. Besides it’s not like you have anywhere else to go.” That gets the kid to quiet down. Instead the kid goes back to wringing his hands in his shirt again. He can hear Ryu sinkering behind him like he wouldn’t have said the exact same thing. He couldn’t believe this kid, like he really hadn’t expected to live and now that he was alive he didn’t know what to do. Sighing he lets go of his anger for now, “Gaku.”

“Huh?” The kid stares up at his confused. 

“That’s my name, Gaku.”

The kid mumbles something under his breath before speaking up, “.....My name’s Tenn.”

“Well then, welcome to Kyome’s castle Mage apprentice Tenn, I hope you’ll feel welcomed here.” After he says it, he worries it comes off as indifferent and he hopes the kid, Tenn, doesn’t believe that at all.

Tenn gives him a smile, it’s a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless, “Thank you, Gaku…” 

 

Yeah, that was going to take some work.

**Author's Note:**

> Ayyy lmao i return with a part two after a while oops. School has been trying to kill me so I will quickly share this before classes kick back into gear after midterm hell week last week and hopefully I can manage to get some more work for this au done too! 
> 
> And no Riku isn't actually dead, Tenn just doesn't know that.... yet.... ;)
> 
> I'll probably post a buncha oneshots so I can build the au more before really trying to tackle the main big story that total does not have to do with this legend the demon talks about no way.... no way at all. If there's anything in particular u were curious abt or wanted to kno let me kno and ill see what i can do :D
> 
> thank u for reading! u can find me @imagine-nerd on tumblr or @imaginenerds on twitter


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